Carnegie also uses Overdrive. Libraries have to pay for an additional license to allow downloads by members. But I know most libraries including Carnegie are having budget issues, so I doubt an e-license is high on their list of priorities.

With respect, you entirely missed my point. Andrew Carnegie was responsible for the building of over 3500 libraries around the world by 1919 -- nearly 1700 in the US, 125 in Canada, 660 in Britain and Ireland, and others elsewhere. The first was in his beloved hometown in Scotland. He believed in local communities directly participating in projects, ongoing funding and that information (lending/access) would be free.

E-book lending opens a new category of access and re-enfranchises, potentially, a new generation of borrowers who are electronically engaged and not likely to need, or seek out, paper. It just seems to me libraries today could do a significantly better job in this area, at relatively little cost and by pooling resources of regional library facilities.